The WildWorks Station

I didn’t think of it but this week’s unexpected theme was anything on Korea. At least May is still Asian Heritage Month and before going on-air at CKCU, there were some Koreans checking out the station. Since CKCU-FM has a Chinese and Vietnamese programming, there hasn’t been a Korean spoken program on the station. It was fitting that this entry is dedicated to anything Korean. As you know from my radio show that I play Chinese and some Japanese music. I haven’t played K-Pop (Korean Pop) music as I rarely keep up to date.
The photo posted was an event I attended on Sunday afternoon called 4 in 1 Sessions and the second edition had Scary Bear Soundtrack. The lead member, Gloria is Korean. I posted photos on the WildWorks Facebook page.
For some unique reason, there’s a nice I took during the Victoria Day long weekend, here’s the link.

Who else is Korean (mentioned on CKCU-FM)? Well, there’s Nat from Nat & Marie as I gave a shoutout on my slightly Korean themed show.
Aside from Asian Heritage Month, there was some tributes played on the show. One for Donna Summer (first part) and Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees (the live show) as both talented musicians passed away recently.
Getting into pop culture, The Rolling Stones were played because Mick Jagger hosted and performed on the season finale of Saturday Night Live. Arcade Fire performed one of the songs from the final sketch. It’s lovely hearing the song, She’s a Rainbow.
Last thing, I cannot stop listening to Beach House’s new album, Bloom. Aside from Myth and Lazuli, I decided to play Other People to make it different week after week.
Without further ado, the playlist for the May 23rd show is at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 23rd Radio Show – Press play to listen.

It’s becoming a yearly tradition on my radio show at CKCU-FM to play songs for Mother’s Day. I am following the way that Hong Kong radio does as they play songs for Mother’s Day. I know that Cantopop is usually about love ballads but there are a few songs that mentions mothers. It’s always a privilege to play the well-know songs for Mother’s Day every year. As usual, the important songs being played were Bless by Sally Yeh and Truly Love You by Beyond as their songs brings a message about caring for you loved one. There was a dedication to a person from Toronto because I read her website and it almost brought me to tear having to read about her mom. I decided to play a song called 祝福 (Bless) by Jacky Cheung. It’s the same name from the Sally Yeh song but different.
Before the Mother’s Day songs, there was a tribute to Teresa Teng as May 8th was her passing. May 8, 1995 to be specific was when she tragically died and music fans in Asia mourned the loss of an incredible singer.
Apologies on the lack of a good photo. I recently got the Vibram FiveFingers KSO shoe at MEC. So far, it’s been comfortable wearing these minimal shoes. Walking with them feels pretty good and I don’t lose balance. As what people say, it does feel like you are walking barefooted.
As usual, the Wild 10 Countdown and a tribute to Adam Yauch, known as MCA from the Beastie Boys were played on the first part of the show.
The full May 9th radio show playlist is posted at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 9th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

It’s now May and a brand new month but first thing to mention, I had a great time on Monday night at the Ottawa International Writers Festival for the All In A Day Songwriters Circle: The Stage Name Summit. From the photo shown above, there was Masia One with DJ 2 Creamz and CBC’s Alan Neal. Other performers for the songwriters circle who attended were Snailhouse, Oh Susanna, Socalled and Joe Keithley (from the punk-rock band, DOA). Out of the five performers, the ones I’m familiar with were Masia and Snailhouse since I usually see them from time to time and been a great supporter to their works.
Overall, it was nice to watch the performers be witty among one another and giving their best performances to the audience on the final night of Writers Festival. The photos will be posted below.

The SOCAN Edition
Wednesday’s radio show was SOCAN week and to be unique, I decided to play Canadian bands and musicians with Asian backgrounds as May is Asian Heritage Month. It was a bit difficult finding a Canadian musician with Asian descent but I was able to pull through the live show. On the first part of the show, the new song by Metric got played and as usual, the Wild 10 Countdown with a new number one song to begin May.
The playlist is over at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 2nd Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Photos from the All In A Day Songwriters Circle
  
 

It was a close call for Wednesday’s show because I had a equipment failure on Saturday night as I was doing a pre-recorded interview with Adaline. Luckily, there was a second chance as I did a live phone interview with her. It was almost a disaster because CKCU-FM doesn’t do long distance calls as I would need a long distance card to call outside of Ottawa. Aside from the slight setback, it was smooth sailing from then on as I got to do the interview. You can listen to the interview in the audio section. What I forgot to mention were the opening acts from Saturday’s show. They were Factory Owl and The Watters Brothers. Up and coming local bands. I’ve seen The Watters Brothers perform and they bring a style of Blues which is marvellous. It was the first time to check out Factory Owl and their use of orchestral instruments sounded pretty lovely. Overall, it was good Saturday night to enjoy live music.

What was played on the live radio show were songs from Hong Kong films as this Sunday will be the 31st Hong Kong Film Award. It’s become a yearly tradition to play past winners from the Best Song Film category leading up to the award show. As far as I know, it will be broadcast on RTHK Radio 2 and will definitely listen in.
Aside from the live show was the top 10 countdown and I haven’t made a set date on resuming the top 10 entries.
The playlist is over at this link.

Audio/Interviews
The full show – Press play to listen.

The Adaline Interview

Read the rest of this entry »

March is ending in a few days and this week’s radio show was filled with a lot materials from the first part to the live part of the show. DJ Digs returned to the show and Lauren is there as usual.
After the top 10 countdown from the first hour, we played the local acts that are performing at JunoFest and then played the favourite bands and musicians who are nominated for the Juno Awards.
The live part of the show had the interview with Minus the Tiger from the Netherlands and the yearly tribute to Leslie Cheung. April 1, 2003 was when it happened and it’s now nine years since his tragic death. He is still missed among Hong Kong fans and abroad.
This year’s tribute was a bit shorter than previous editions. It’s still nice to play his hits from Monica and others.

The fun part to this week’s show was The Charlatan coming in to shoot video (their second attempt) and giving them a glimpse on how we prepare and going live for the radio show. It was great to have someone from The Charlatan come in and check out my radio show as I try to make it fun in playing good music. Aside from that, the written article on myself and the radio show is posted at the Charlatan over at this link.
This week’s playlist has the live part of the show posted there. You can go over at this link. Don’t forget to listen to the interview with Minus the Tiger.
Have a good week!

Audio/Interview
The March 28th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Live/Second Hour of WildWorks on CKCU-FM – March 28, 2012

The Interview with Minus the Tiger

From Thursday’s Fundamentally Sound, the freestyle rap challenge. Aired on March 29, 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been an exciting sixth season on the blog and a second season for the radio show at CKCU-FM. Apologies that it sounds confusing between radio and the blog.
On my radio show, I wasn’t sure about having co-hosts but it became helpful to myself as I didn’t have to mess up compare to hosting alone. I have to give credit to the Italian co-host who joined in the first half of 2nd season as she was able to broaden my music horizons. She was there for a couple of months and I still miss her presence. As for the second half of the season, I had a returning host from a former radio show and was helpful to my show. Then there was a new co-host as she’s studying in Journalism at Carleton University. It was helpful for her in gaining some experience and is into the Canadian indie music, which certainly helped on my radio show. How could I not forget about Digory as he’s appeared on and off and there were a few people who came on as well.
I could not forget about the countless of interviews I’ve done with musicians and bands. The people who inspired me to make the show interesting are Ellie Davis, George Stroumboulopoulos and Nat & Marie (second half of the season).
To clarify, I will still be on the air but airing reruns on the interviews. I didn’t explain on The Wild 10 Countdown as that will continue in podcast/pre-recorded form.
Speaking of The Wild 10, there were two debuts in the form of Matthew Barber and Graham Wright. For the third week in a role, Lose It by Austra is still number one.
For the second year to Cantopop listeners/fans, there was a tribute to the Hong Kong rock band, Beyond on the live part of the radio show.
Last but not least, the playlist for the June 29th show is at this link. The audio is posted below.
As usual, the blog will be on a Summer break, even though Ottawa has a bunch of Summer festivals happening. Don’t worry, there will be a few Summer special entries.
Have a great summer! New season (series 7) returns in September.

Audio/Podcast
The June 29th Radio Show (Season Finale) – Press play to listen.

The live part/second hour of the show is posted up on Podomatic. Click here to listen.

Summer has arrived in the Nation’s Capital and the nice, warm weather has been either positive to the sun lovers or negative for anyone not liking the heat. I don’t need to mention about the fashion shows again as you go back to the last entry. Aside from that, Wednesday’s show returned to the usual format of the first hour being pre-recorded and the second hour being live on the airwaves. Due to last week’s post holiday hangover, the segment I wanted to play got aired for the first of June’s edition of the radio show. It’s a leftover from May to say the least. I found out a friend went to sleep when I started to play the sad love songs in Chinese. Before that, I decided to play a track by Crissi Cochrane and I think my friend liked the song I played. As usual, the new Arcade Fire tracks, Speaking In Tongues and Culture War has been garnering a lot of buzz and for this week, the new single from Library Voices came out. Forgot to mention that the start of the first hour (podcast) of the show had a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron as he passed away last week. He was known as the Godfather of Rap. I wished I had known some of his musical works.
I couldn’t forget about giving a shoutout to Nat & Marie again as I have been enjoying their Wednesday night Internet show.

The Wild 10 Countdown for June 1, 2011 summary. In case I may not update the sister blog, there’s a new number one song to kick off June’s countdown. It’s Kill Count by The Balconies. Even though they are now in Toronto but good for Ottawa’s own The Balconies for grabbing the top spot. The biggest gainer for this week happens to be Austra as the band is getting a lot of praise for the release of the debut album, Feel It Break. It is also iTunes Canada’s Free Single of the Week.

Since there will be a lot of events coming up for June. Season six for the blog will be winding down soon. There will be a few entries left before it goes into Summer break, just like the TV season as it finished in May.

The New Midnight Jamz Preshow – June 4, 2011 and Cupcakes
I finally returned to The New Midnight Jamz and the preshow podcast. It’s a lengthy one as the host, DJ Daddy Rich and myself went through the Top 10 US chart from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart. As usual, we discussed on Doctor Who since the midseason finale aired in the UK.
As we ended off the podcast, we decided to play the mini-mix from The Strombo Show’s The Blend. The mini-mix is at this link.
It’s been awhile that I brought cupcakes to CKCU-FM and this time, I went to Auntie Loo’s Treats as I’ve heard it has one of the best cupcakes.
Here’s the mini-playlist from the preshow.
Praise Da Lord (featuring Shad) – Maestro
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Alright OK! – Masia One (apology for not mentioning her on the podcast)
The Blend – Coco Fresh and Lissa Monet

The photos posted from below shows Strawberry Lemonade, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Mint Chocolate and Earl Grey with Lemonade. Overall, they were pretty good but the bad part was that I putted it in the fridge and it was kind of solid. The icing tasted good and wasn’t overly sweet.

Links
The playlist for the June 1st radio show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown entry for June 1st is at this link.

Audio/Podcast 
The June 1st Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The New Midnight Jamz for June 4, 2011 (includes the preshow podcast)

The Preshow Podcast – is posted from PodOmatic at this link.

Photos – Cupcakes from Auntie Loo’s Treats
 

I would never expect to start May 2011 on an awesome level because I had the opportunity to see The Rural Alberta Advantage again. This was a unique one because I had my co-host, Erica go to the show and it couldn’t have made me happier to finally have a radio co-host join me at a concert. Prior to their performance, Erica and I had the opportunity to chat with Amy and Paul of The RAA and it was the usual funny interview and the first for my co-host in interviewing a band. Overall, it was a great show at Ritual Nightclub and the opener, Hooded Fang really surprised me with their set and I literally enjoyed it. Even though it was on a Sunday night, there was a good turnout for The RAA.

Mother’s Day – Cantopop Songs
It’s the second year that I decided to do a Mother’s Day theme segment as I chose Cantopop tracks that are linked to Mother’s Day. Hope you will like it and a Happy Mother’s Day!
Don’t forget to listen to the interview and the show on the bottom.

Audio/Podcast
The May 4th show – press play to listen

The May 4th live broadcast at CKCU-FM – press play to listen and the playlist is at this link.

The Rural Alberta Advantage Interview (2011 Edition)

A Slight Update for April 27, 2011 – Added is the April 27th radio show.

Even though it was a wet and gloomy day, Wednesday’s radio show did not dampen spirits as I played several new tracks and 1980s Cantopop songs. There was no interview segment and the Easter weekend is coming up as it was best to relax and take a break. What was played on the show were the usual top 10 countdown and several songs from a compilation by Paper Bag Records. It’s a cover to a Madonna album called True Blue as that album celebrates 25 years. The artists that took part in the compilation were Young Galaxy, The Acorn, Winter Gloves, The Rural Alberta Advantage and etc.

One the bands in the compilation whom announced their indefinite hiatus. You Say Party does a rendition of Love Makes The World Go Round and is considered to be the band’s final new song. Listening to the track felt bittersweet as the band won’t be together for the foreseeable future. The band will be greatly missed.
There was a shoutout to RTHK’s Ellie Davis as I decided to play a brand new song by Emmy The Great. Reason for it was listening to her New Year’s Day show and she interviewed the London-based folk singer. It’s nice to get in touch with other radio hosts elsewhere in the world.

R.I.P. – Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) of Doctor Who
On a sombre note, it was sad to hear that Elisabeth Sladen, known to Doctor Who fans as Sarah Jane Smith has passed away and it’s days before the return of Doctor Who (Series 6). It was quite a shock and surprise because her passing away was unexpected. Hopeful to do The New Midnight Jamz preshow podcast as myself & show host, DJ Daddy Rich will chat about the unexpected passing of a wonderful and excellent actress.

Just added for April 24, 2011. The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU-FM. The preshow podcast is added as myself and Daddy Rich talked about the passing of Elisabeth Sladen. The songs chosen were played on the tribute which followed the season premiere of Doctor Who in the UK. They were Someone Like You by Adele and She by Elvis Costello.

Final Mention
I forgot to bring up that this blog is nominated in a couple of categories (in Arts & Culture, Music, and Pop Culture & Entertainment) for the 2011 edition of the Canadian Weblog Awards. It should be a fun experience.

Without further ado, you can check the playlist at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is at this link.

April 27th Entry
It looks like I will be hosting solo for the foreseeable future. I’m starting to sound like Doctor Who as companions leave and move on. Enough of the sadness, Wednesday’s show had to do with Sandy Lam because April 26 was her birthday and I realize that last season’s show on the same topic had bad sound quality. It’s great to re-do it again with clearer sound.
I forgot to mention it on the show but on Twitter, Nat and Marie (whomever it was) wanted me to take a photo of what I’m wearing at the radio station. The photo is at this link. It was used on Incredibooth for the iPad 2.
The audio for the April 27th show is in the audio/podcast section. Enjoy!

Audio/Podcast
There’s two versions to listen.
The full 2 hour April 20th show  - press play to listen

The April 20th live show – press play to listen.

The April 24 edition of The New Midnight Jamz – press play to listen.

The April 27 edition of WildWorks – press play to listen. The playlist is at this link.

I couldn’t get a good picture or anything that’s creative for this entry. It’s an excuse to write about the iPad 2 as I finally got it on Monday. So far, it’s lighter, thinner and faster. The first generation iPad, I had some issues using djay during my radio show because the app takes up a lot of resource when playing the music. With the iPad 2, they upgraded the CPU and RAM and it’s been seamless playing the music. With the new iPad, I had to add the music from scratch and luckily was on live for the one hour and the countdown is on podcast only. Setting up for Wednesday’s show did not take too long as I was hosting solo as Lauren said her goodbye and the other two co-hosts got busy with other things.
Oh yes, the interview with Charlotte Cornfield was done on Friday night at The Raw Sugar Cafe. She’s getting some buzz in the Canadian music scene as she’s planning to release her album, Two Horses. She was at The Raw Sugar Cafe opening up for Daniel Romano. It was a good interview and for the first time, I didn’t goof up on the questions. It must be the luck of the Zoom H4n.
Also on the radio show was playing past Hong Kong movie songs as the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards is being presented this Sunday (April 17). Unfortunately, I did the same thing last year but I didn’t save the audio and this year’s edition is a make up as I played the prominent songs which won an award or was nominated in past years. It was nice to play some Cantopop tunes.
The playlist for the show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is at this link.
Last thing, I forgot to mention the nice weather from the past weekend. It was such a nice time.

Audio/Podcast/Video – Updated on April 17, 2011
The April 13th radio show – press play to listen.

From April 9th, The New Midnight Jamz, which included the pre-show podcast. Press play to listen.

From Ellie Davis‘s radio show on RTHK Radio 3 for April 16th. Here’s a song request I asked along with three shoutouts to my two co-hosts and another host. The song being Arcade Fire‘s Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains). Press play to listen.

On April 16, The New Midnight Jamz and the pre-show podcast. The playlist is at this link.
Press play to listen.

The Charlotte Cornfield Interview

Here’s a scene from Chungking Express as I mentioned about the song (California Dreamin’) that kept playing over and over.